It was a moment of grief and sadness when Talatu (not real name) a victim of insurgency explained how she buried her daughter and husband who were both killed by Boko Haram member’s in her presence.
Talatu narrated her ordeal to TJT in distress as she intermittently wiped her tears. She said they came into Gwoza around 8pm sometime in 2014, and killed only the men who were the breadwinners of their families. In her own case, the killing of their target (her husband) was accompanied by the death of her daughter and she (Talatu) almost lost her life because the first bullet that was fired at her husband pierced through her daughter’s body and hit her on the leg.
In what looked like a movie scene, Talatu described the death of her husband as thus: “they came to the village at night by 8 o’clock and killed all the men leaving us with the corpses to bury. In my own case, the bullet that was aimed at my husband pierced through my daughter’s body and hit my leg. Instantly my daughter died. They shot another one that killed my husband I was left with a gunshot wound and two corpses to bury”.
Talatu said she was not left alone even in her anguish. According to her, immediately after burying the corpses of her loved ones the following morning, the insurgents came back and told her to get ready to go to Sambisa with them. They said, and she quotes “people like you are married to Shekau our leader because he is the only one who is entitled to marry widows like you”.
Narrating further, Talatu said she vehemently rejected the offer telling them she cannot follow them. On hearing this they threatened her life for her refusal to follow them. They left her for another operation and gave her an order to prepare promising to come back for her later in the evening. Instead of preparing to go to Sambisa with them, Talatu prepared her remaining four children to escape from Gwoza.
That evening Talatu got her children ready to go to the nearby village called Bulabuli where she asked them to stay with their grandparents. The children then took the pathway trekking in the dark on their sojourn for safety in Bulabli. Having established their safe departure, it was now time for her to move as fast as she could to escape being abducted for Shekau.
As a caring mother, Talatu had cooked for her children who were hungry as they had not eaten food for hours, on her way to connect with her children who left as an advance party to Bulabuli with their food in her hand, she was accosted by the insurgents who have come to take her to Shekau in Sambisa as they have promised. Talatu smartly told them that she was taking the food she was holding to her neighbours and that she will be back to join them. Doubting that this may be far from the truth, the insurgents attached one of their members as a guard to follow her to the neighbour’s house.
On getting to the house, she escaped through the back door and ran through the bush path with her gunshot leg to meet her children in Bulabili as fast as she could. Though she journeyed through the night in a dehumanising condition, Talatu was happy to meet her children in the safe custody of her father. She narrated her ordeal to her father and they both agreed that she should relocate to an entirely new location since she is still being trailed by the insurgents.
Presently Talatu is living like a fugitive in her present location. She said they still come after her but God had intervened because they would always come across her without recognising her. She always disguises herself when she sees them, but the irony is that she knows all of them.
On whether Talatu will forgive her enemies, she has this to say “of what use is it for me not to forgive them? They know what they have done is bad. So if I refuse to forgive them, will it bring back my people to life? I am managing my life now and I am hoping that in future my children will not witness this traumatising situation. I sleep and wake up with this grief every day and I will not forget it until I pass away. Do you know what it means to bury your husband and daughter yourself? All the other men that would have been around to console you and give you a helping hand have all been killed? Why will people do that? Are they happy that we are impoverished now? Our lives have completely changed? We are living like beggars and becoming a burden to people when we have our own lives to live, even though it was not all so rosy but it’s still a 100 times better than what we are experiencing now. To forgive kam, I don’t have a problem because that is one of the beautiful teachings of Islam but for the rest of my life, I cannot forget.
